This invention relates generally to bookholders and more particularly to bookholders for reading in bed from an inclined position, which are also adaptable to other uses. A great deal of attention has been devoted in the prior art to reading in bed. Various arrangements to facilitate inclined reading are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,354 to Su Chia-Liu dated Mar. 4, 1980; U.S. Pat. No. 3,351,312 to Ballas dated Nov. 7, 1967 and my own U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,896,252 dated Jan. 23, 1990; 4,907,777 dated Mar. 13, 1990 and 4,998,703 dated Mar. 12, 1991.
Such bookholders are usually either adapted to be suspended from a bracket on its associated furniture, or to rest on a table. My patents above are exemplary of tabletop bookholders.
Phillips U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,734 illustrates a bookholder frame disposed on rods attached to a clamp on the bedstead, while Fitzhugh U.S. Pat. No. 1,598,569 issued Aug. 31, 1926 and Vandagriff U.S. Pat. No. 1,797,847 issued Mar. 24, 1931, both show bookholder brackets attached to the side rail of a bed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,255 to Hill shows a bookholder, including a flat base member which is inserted between the mattress and the box spring of a bed. The foregoing arrangements are suitable for attachment to beds, but are rather limited for other uses because of their construction.
MacKew U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,008 dated Jun. 19, 1984, has disclosed a modular arrangement for a bookholder which can either be suspended from brackets attached to furniture or can function as a freestanding desk or tabletop unit. A plurality of different support mechanisms are required for attachment to the module in order to provide different support modes.
It would be desirable to achieve a bookholder with a minimum number of parts and of inexpensive construction suitable for inclined reading in bed. Further, it would be desirable to utilize the same elements in order to support the bookholder in different modes of use.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an improved bookholder which is suitable for different modes of support without the addition of parts.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved bookholder which is suitable either for support from a bed or for use on a table top.
Still another object to the invention is to provide an improved bookholder which is economical, easy to use and adaptable to a number of different reader and book support situations.